Lieutenant General Zdzisław Goral, Commander Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast (HQ MNC NE), and Cezary Szczepański, Managing Director of the Telecommunications Research Institute (PIT), signed the contract for the SZAFRAN Command and Control Information System (C2IS) on December 13th, 2007.
The ceremony of signing the contract that took place at the Baltic Barracks was honoured with the presence of representatives of the three Framework Nations, i.e. Denmark, Germany and Poland, who are members of the Corps Committee at the same time. Legal advisers and G-6 representatives from MNC NE, who assisted negotiating the contract, also participated.
Lieutenant General Goral underlined the importance of SZAFRAN for maintaining operational capabilities of the Corps. But as Mr. Szczepański said, signing the contract is just the first step towards developing fruitful cooperation between the Corps and PIT, which is an inevitable condition for effective functioning of the system.
Command and Control Information System (C2IS) is an Information Technology-based system that provides commanders and staff officers (end users) with core and functional services helping them to accomplish their tasks at Headquarters or Command Posts in operation. C2IS enables gathering, processing and exchanging of data. This system also includes operational and technical procedures.
Taking part in any mission sets a requirement for the Headquarters to be interoperable with other actors in the theatre. In other words, interoperability is the ability of several C2IS to “speak to each other and to understand each other”. SZAFRAN complies with all these requirements having been equipped with modern and convenient programme tools.
Choosing SZAFRAN to be the Corps’ C2IS was preceded by comparing, testing and evaluating of altogether three systems – Danish DACCIS, German HEROS and Polish SZAFRAN. In the testing period the assessment guidance given by the Corps Committee was strictly followed. On the basis of the testing results, Commander HQ MNC NE recommended SZAFRAN to be the system that best fulfils the Operational Requirements of the HQ MNC NE.
